RAINSFORD ISLAND A Boston Harbor Case Study in Public Neglect and Private Activism. This item is unavailable.RAINSFORD ISLAND A Boston Harbor Case Study in Public Neglect and Private Activism

This book provides an in-depth history of Rainsford Island. It begins with private ownership from 1636 to 1736, then the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, finally the City of Boston. The island's complex history is best told by segmenting its various periods. Until 1854, it was occasionally a place of quarantine, as well as a summer resort for the wealthy. In 1854, while under the ownership of the Commonwealth, the island's use took a sinister turn beginning sixty-six years as an off-shore dumping ground for Boston's unwanted. Its inmates were victims of: poverty, lack of health care, mental illness, senility, addiction, lack of proper housing' poor sanitary conditions, inability to pay a small fine, men, unable to find work, incarcerated as paupers, and unwed pregnant women. This book dedicates a chapter to those that never left the island. It was important to include 28 pages listing 1,777 names of the dead, their birthplaces, ages, as well as the dates and causes of death. I believe those bodies still remain there in unmarked graves, including a War of 1812 Sailor; 9 Civil War soldiers who died on active duty; and 108 Veterans of the Civil War who died between 1873 and 1893. 14 of those Veterans were African American, one was a member of the 54th Mass Regt. We note 2 heroes: Alice Lincoln and Louis Brandeis. Their efforts resulted in the City ending Rainsford Island as a warehouse for the poor, the unwanted, and the mentally ill. Rainsford entered its final 26 years as the Boys' House of Reformation. Further examples of inept government management, cruelty, neglect, and death, of "Unfortunate" boys ages eight to eighteen are documented. Sentences ranged from playing ball on Sundays to murder. Those boys were comingled on the 11 acre island. This book is dedicated to the memory of all who were sent to Rainsford Island, especially those who remain buried there, still neglected but now not forgotten by anyone who reads this book.